Ginter Gap Cards #4

The fourth installment of Ginter Gap cards - custom A&G cards with subjects that Topps didn't include - uses the 2024 design.  

It's unfortunate that this tribute comes at the time of Bob Uecker's passing.  I won't go into his career and biography, since almost everyone that knows baseball knows who he is.  Just check out some of his appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson via YouTube if you want a good laugh.

I took a bit of a liberty and moved the Topps name from between the subject name and the A&G wordmark.  It seemed so crammed in there.  

This picture is somewhat more square, so there's a lot of headroom (and background to fill in when I removed the player that was in the original template image.)

You can see that Kirby is shown from halfway to his beltline, while Uecker's image stops just below the collar.  It didn't take me nearly as long as it typically does to create the framework and then integrate the image in it.  

I actually started with the name.  I moved the "U" on top of the "P" and then copied the "E" into the space that was created.  That gave me "UECKE", so I just had to find an "R".  It came from Gunnar Henderson.  That "R" was out in the middle of a bright background of the same color, so it pasted right in.

Then all that was left was to adjust and fill in the background around him.  And paste over the side "rails" where the image covered them, or extend the blue areas of his jacket to meet the side edges.  And voilà!

Ginter Gap Cards #3: Had To Do It

I was hoping to whip this up in a couple hours tonight just so I could break up the last two A&G box posts.  But image editing with a program from 1992 just takes a lot of time.  Plus I was starting from scratch since this subject has to be in the 2023 Ginter design instead of last year's, which I already had the templates made up for.

From what I've (briefly) read, the most popular couple nickname for Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift is "Traylor".  But that was just one article.  I kinda like mine - pronounced "tray kay and tay tay".  

Now I'm a metal head from the 80's so I'll never consider myself a Swiftie at any point.  I don't know a lot of her songs, but she's geniunely and extremely adorable.  Kelce seems like a bit of a frat boy, but he's goofy too, so I wish them well.  There are hardly any good shots of the two of them together yet, so I had to fake it with these two images.  Does it look legit?

This 2023 design is tough to piece together.  I took Max Scherzer's card (since he had the nice light colors) and eliminated his picture.  Then I extended the upper background all the way across to make it easy to paste on top of it.  But then I realized I had to separate the bottom half and make that so it would paste on top of the photo.  Took some liberties with the edges, so they differ from the original.  The name section is a bit narrow, but I'm rolling with it.

One of these days I'll learn PhotoShop for real and be able to manipulate layers much better and also make the photos look more like drawings so they blend better.

Ginter Gap Cards #2

The half dozen people that responded favorably to my custom A&G cards of Malika Andrews inspired me to create some more.  I'll call them Ginter Gap cards, since they are subjects that Ginter didn't include.

This time, it's the new owner of the Washington Commanders.  He's already brought good fortune on the franchise - they're 2 and 0 on the season so far.  There are also reports that a new stadium is in the works.  Not to mention that he replaced the dark cloud over the team in general.

Guess I could have waited a few days for the new 2023 A&G to come out, but so far I like this base design a whole lot better.

Ginter Gap Cards #1

The half dozen people that responded favorably to my custom A&G cards of Malika Andrews inspired me to create some more.  I'll call them Ginter Gap cards, since they are subjects that Ginter didn't include.

Today's subject is a guy that's on a lot of people's minds.  

So great to hear he's awake, and talking without the breathing tube and looks to be heading toward a full recovery.  A remarkable story.

Another Nice Ms. Andrews

Allen & Ginter typically features a variety of celebrities, sportscasters, musicians, athletes from other sports, and even objects to go along with the current and retired baseball players.  And several of their subjects are usually women, and deservedly so.  

Especially appreciated are the really attractive ones.  I usually designate a "Babe Of The Set" each year and sometimes will go after the minis and parallels.  Started that with Erin Andrews and Mrs. Verlander, Kate Upton.  They are so popular that I've not found too many and have only done a few others, including Paige Spiranac, who has some cards in other sets like Upper Deck Goodwin Champions that are even better shots than the usually conservative A&G.

This year's candidate is Malika Andrews.  She's the former sideline reporter for the NBA on ESPN who now hosts the NBA flagship show on the channel.  Her card is #258 in this year's set.

Not bad, but again, the conservative image.  She's got such a bright smile that this shot doesn't quite bring out with the impact it should. 

So I made some custom alternatives.

Now, my image editing program has been around as long as the WNBA, so I don't have the tools to match the painting-like images on Allen & Ginter cards, but I tried to mimic the faded backgrounds as well as I could. 

That's better, but the background was so bright that it looks like she's in a lava lamp.

This one's cute, and is really close to the actual card image.  Much better smile though.

I like this one the best.  She doesn't wear her hair down too often any more (at least in the few times I've caught the NBA show, which is almost never.)  But this one captures her the best IMO. 

Which one do you like?